Sunday, March 13, 2005

Karl Marx on consumerism

"Excess and immoderation" becomes the economy's "true standard" as the "expansion of production and of needs becomes an ingenious and always calculating subservience to inhumane, depraved, unnatural, and imaginary appetites...(Every product is a bait by means of which the individual tries to entice the essence of the other person, his money. Every real or potential need is a weakness which will draw the bird into the line...)...The entrepeneur accedes to the most depraved fancies of his neighbor, plays the role of pander between him and his needs, awakens unhealthy appetites in him, and watches for every weakness in order, later, to claim the remuneration for this labor of love."--Marx, The Economic and Philosophical Manual of 1844

Henry David Thoreau

"If a man should walk in the woods for the love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer, but if he spends his whole day as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making earth bald before her time, he is esteemed an industrious and enterprising citizen."--Thoreau, Life Without Principle